Editorial | Scholarship shenanigans

The Bullitt County Board of Education was worried that its students weren't receiving enough scholarship money because mediocre grades were holding them back. So on Monday, the school board decided to fix that.

No, the board didn't raise taxes so it could reduce class sizes. It didn't go out and try to recruit the best teachers from neighboring districts. Nor did it take other bold action to actually educate students.

It didn't even tell the students that they just need to work harder.

No, the school board simply lowered the expectations for its students.

Now, some students who were doing "B" level work will now be awarded "A's."

Some "C" students will now magically become "B" students. And so on.

If your son or daughter was failing with a 60 percent in Algebra II, no worry. That grade is now good enough to pass.

Several other Kentucky school districts had already gone with watered-down grading scales, including Shelby, Spencer and Henry counties, according to a story in Monday's Courier-Journal by Patrick T. Sullivan.

According to Mr. Sullivan's story, the grade inflation doesn't necessarily help students get into college but it does help them with bills because it increases the state college merit scholarship money available to them through the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) program, which bases the awards on letter grades.

But it seems to us there is something wrong about simply changing grading scales in an effort to give students a cash bonanza.

Darrell Coleman, a former teacher and the only member of the school board to oppose the move in Bullitt County, worried that by setting goals lower, students will adjust their aim as well. "If you lower expectations, you will get a 60 instead of a 65. I think we're sending a bad message," he said.

We agree.

Bob Farrace, the communications director with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, said that group doesn't have a problem when districts broaden the range of their grading scales because he said districts often make such a change to make it easier for students to pass if they have missed assignments.

Huh?

While Mr. Farrace has never heard of districts altering grading scales to get more scholarship money, the Education Commission of the States identified it as a problem in 2005.

At that time, four states had implemented statewide grading scales to combat grade inflation. According to the commission and SEDL, formerly known as the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, at least 10 states from North Carolina to New Mexico have now put such statewide scales in place.

And in Virginia, which has seen numerous districts lower grading scales to help students get merit scholarships, even some school districts have asked the state legislature to step in and standardize what constitutes an "A" or a "B."

While we're wary of the fallacy of slippery slope arguments, we are concerned about what happens if more and more districts alter their grading scales, as has happened in Virginia.

Kentucky's KEES scholarships are funded by the state lottery, which has a finite source of cash.

An explosion of grade inflation across the state could force the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, which oversees the KEES scholarships, to reduce scholarship amounts to worthier students in an effort to make higher payouts to those who really didn't distinguish themselves in the classroom.

Perhaps the state Board of Education and the General Assembly need to consider putting in place a statewide grading scale that will allow colleges and the KEES program to judge students using comparable measures.

This isn't the perfect solution because the rigors of classes change not only from district to district, but some schools are more difficult than other schools within a district and there are even some teachers who grade harder than other teachers within the same school.

There is no way to account for that, but it just seems wrong to inflate grades in an effort to give students scholarships they didn't earn.

Bullitt County schools need to reconsider this action and put the old grading scale back in place, as do other school districts that have made their grading systems less rigorous.

If they don't, there isn't a change in the grading scale that could keep us from giving them all an "F."

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Editorial | Scholarship shenanigans

The Bullitt County Board of Education was worried that its students weren't receiving enough scholarship money because mediocre grades were holding them back. So on Monday, the school board decided